


take it with both hands

by lady_krysis (saekhwa)



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Canon Character of Color, Character of Color, Community: kink_bingo, Interracial Relationship, M/M, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, body alteration/injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-07
Updated: 2011-07-07
Packaged: 2017-10-21 03:16:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/220313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saekhwa/pseuds/lady_krysis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex wonders what else Darwin can adapt to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	take it with both hands

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://kink-bingo.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**kink_bingo**](http://kink-bingo.dreamwidth.org/). And so much thanks go to [](http://lunesque.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**lunesque**](http://lunesque.dreamwidth.org/) for the beta. She's ridiculously awesome to me.

Darwin has gills, but Alex is staring at Darwin's lips as they turn purple. He licks the pop off his own and watches Darwin open his mouth as if the gills weren't convincing enough that he's breathing underwater.

Alex wonders what else Darwin can adapt to.

~*~

Darwin asks, "So what can you do, Alex?"

Everyone looks at Alex.

He shakes his head, stuttering out a response, but all that's in his head is, _Kill you._

~*~

"Harder," Darwin says, and he's laughing like the impact of Alex's fist tickles.

Alex has punched him as hard as he could. His knuckles ache, but he turns, searching the room for something that the suits won't miss. He pulls the torn skin off his knuckles out of habit, dragging his tongue along the points to lick away the blood, and that's when he decides that what they'll miss is the statue. Since he's already destroyed that, everything else is worthless.

He tries a chair, but Darwin keeps laughing and taunting him. "Come on. Harder."

He wonders if Darwin would say the same thing if they kissed. If they fucked.

Alex passes the chair to Sean and uses his pop bottle.

"Harder," Darwin says again, not even breathless, and Alex tries another chair.

He even tries the jagged edge of the bottle and watches the glass grind against whatever's covering Darwin's skin. It's hard against the tips of his fingers, as coarse and rough as prison walls. By the time Alex picks up the pipe, he already knows that he can't hurt Darwin.

~*~

It's nice knowing you're not the only mutant freak in the world, but after Hank snitches him out and Erik, Charles, and Moira look disgusted with every single one of them, Alex has to split.

Darwin finds him down one of the halls and casually strolls up like them running into each other was an accident. There's only so far any of them can go while the window's being patched.

"I want to ask how you did what you did, but then I guess"--Darwin shrugs--"that's why we're all here."

"Guess so," is all Alex has, and a wish for a cigarette, something to do with his hands other than drum them against the wall, hoping Darwin will go away.

He stiffens when Darwin leans against the same slim section of wall between the doors and can't decide if Darwin's arm brushing his is an accident.

"I guess our mommas were right when they said we were special," Darwin says.

And Alex doesn't know if that's supposed to be a conversation or an observation. Whatever. It doesn't matter. He's learned to keep his dead parents a secret.

He pushes off the wall, about to head somewhere else, but Darwin catches his hand with a quiet, "Hey," that sounds like it's going to turn into a sorry. The only sorry piece of shit in the room is Alex right now, so he cuts it off, asks, "So you can adapt to anything, right?"

~*~

Darwin shouldn't be game for this, and Alex shouldn't have asked. They're here to be more than this, _better_ than this. Erik and Charles already censored them with a handful of words, Charles' expression so hurt and disappointed that it had reminded Alex of his foster mom when he'd told the judge, "No. I'm guilty."

He shakes himself out, cocking his head side to side until he feels his spine pop. Then he takes a deep breath. "You ready?"

Darwin nods and spreads his arms wide like a martyr. Bad image, but Alex can't shake it now that it's there. "Give me all you got."

And all Alex has got might just kill him.

Alex clenches his jaw against the _move back_ that's instinctive for him and takes another slow breath. When Darwin shuts his eyes, he has a moment of _don't do this_ , but the energy is there, building in a fast-rising wave that can't be stopped. It crests and then it crashes, and Alex is caught in that slow-moving second of panic and fear as he watches the halos hurtle towards Darwin. His mind moves ahead of the action, and all he sees is Darwin getting sliced in half and the rest of him burning, because that's what happens to things-- _people_ \--

A blink, and Alex is catching up with the present again. Darwin's body is shifting into a series of changes -- armor plates, metal, ash. The gut-churning panic amplifies, and Alex can only think, _They should've never let me out_.

But Darwin doesn't explode. He glows. He's Alex's energy in a human-shaped body, his eyes shining bright when he opens them, the light pulsing out of Darwin's open mouth when he laughs. Alex doesn't move a muscle as he watches Darwin lift his hand and stare at the glowing pattern of his veins. There's a darker pulse of light where his heart should be. Alex wonders if he can touch Darwin like this or if he'll be like everybody else and just burn up.

Darwin touches his cheek, his chest, and then doubles over laughing.

Alex doesn't blink, but Darwin is normal again. There's no slow fade. He's light and then he's not, straightening with a, "Hot damn. Hot _damn_ , I can't believe it."

Neither can Alex. He tentatively sets a hand on Darwin's shoulder, following the slope of it until he's touching Darwin's skin. It's not even hot.

Then he steps back and pulls his hand away. "Uh. Sorry."

"I'm good," Darwin says, and grabs his hand.

Darwin jerks up his shirt and puts Alex's hand on his stomach. There's nothing but human skin, smooth and flat and scar-free. Alex laughs when that changes, when Darwin's skin raises and forms into dark, armored plates. Before he's traced them up to Darwin's ribs, Darwin shifts to metal, and Alex has to know.

He cups Darwin's cheek and is startled to find out that Darwin's lips are warm and full as he licks the smooth, tasteless metal shape of them. Then there's a give to Darwin's skin again, Alex's palm fitting more comfortably to the curve of Darwin's face. Darwin clutches him back, and Alex presses against him harder -- doesn't care that the agents are around, that anyone can see them -- because he knows, no matter what, Darwin can adapt to anything.

Even him.


End file.
